Santo could not promise to open another tunnel at a later date, because he could not be sure he would be free or even alive, but agreed to do it if he could. For one thing, all the available portable portals had been given out, and if they wanted more they would have to make another connection. It was a tacit part of the deal.
So the transferees were gambling that if they changed their minds there would be a chance to return, and the villagers were gambling on the chance to get more invaluable portals. Dori would be on the village side, ready to choose the right villager, after the mission was done. A number of men had expressed interest, even while she wore the veil. Fox was gambling that he would be able to win her before they returned.
The tunnel shut down at noon without fanfare, and Santo went to sleep. Squid, tuning in, noted that Noe had used her mini portal to convert to male as she slept with him. She did love him, and gender was secondary. The portal made it feasible for them to have a complete relationship. Squid’s own roommate, Larry, used their portal to become Laurelai, and Squid was satisfied to remain female herself. They were after all children; when time passed and they became adult, they would have to decide the nuances of their relationship.
They had to wait at least a day while Santo recovered from his interplanetary effort. In that time, Hilda and Benny circulated socially. Benny was winningly affable, impressing the girls, but he made clear that Hilda was his choice. “She’s a Sorceress,” he said, as if jokingly. “And full human. I can’t do better than that.” Hilda clearly loved it, knowing that he meant it. She had already sewn him a hat that made him look debonair. She could hardly wait to come of age.
Ion and Vinia also circulated, he proud to be on his feet, she thrilled to be safely mixing. That couple was never going to break up. The other children welcomed Vinia, especially after Hilda explained. She was indeed perfect for Ion, and he was perfect for her. He was a prince and Magician, but his family would welcome her also because of the way she fulfilled him. He might one day be a king, with her at his side.
When Squid and Laurelai circulated it got interesting. The others had seen Laurelai before in the simulation, but then they had all been reversed in gender. To meet her when they were normal, and Squid remained female, was a novelty. Laurelai had aged herself three years to be fifteen and the very picture of dawning maidenhood, phenomenally lovely. Then they encountered Win with Dori Doe, already eye-hauntingly beautiful.
The two faced each other, taking stock. Laurelai had glossy blue/black hair and eyes and a fair young figure. Dori had voluminous honey-colored hair with matching eyes and full figure. They were two types, opposite in coloration but similarly impressive.
Then Dori spoke. “You are Squid’s friend. You need her.”
“I do,” Laurelai agreed. “She understands me.”
“Squid is special.”
“She is.”
They were speaking as if Squid were not standing right there with them. Squid was not offended: rather she was interested. Dori was an assertive woman; what was she leading up to?
“I would like to be your friend too.” Dori glanced at Win. “These things are not exclusive in your culture?”
“They are not,” Win said. “Squid and I are friends and siblings. We would never play false to each other.”
That was true, but it also iced Squid’s heart for a moment. What of her vision of having to kill Win? How could that ever be reconciled with their abiding commitment to each other? She had never come to terms with that future horror.
“Then let me kiss you,” Dori said. She closed the distance to Laurelai.
How would Laurelai react to that? Squid knew that she was not the only one seriously curious. Laurelai normally wore a man’s body, but she had no romantic interest in women.
Laurelai met her half way. They came together, embraced, and kissed each other on the lips. It was beautiful both as an image and as a gesture.
“You are not what I expected,” Squid told Dori.
“We crossbreeds vary as much as purebreds,” Dori said. “That is partly to offer greater range of choice to tourists, some of whom actually have more than our forms in mind. I am one of the rare ones with a magic talent. It makes me independent.”
The four of them retired to a nook and chatted, getting to know each other. Dori was candid about her nature and experience. As an animal with strongly appealing form but with no human rights she had had more adult experience with men than most women her age, and it had started well before she left girlhood. She couldn’t go into detail in the presence of children but it was clear she was far from innocent. It was a life she intended to escape as soon as possible. Yet she came across as a nice person and surely a worthwhile friend.
“After this is over,” Laurelai said, “and things return to normal, I hope we can get together again. I suspect we will appreciate you even more as adults than we can as children.”
“Don’t be eager to lose your childish state,” Dori said. “It is precious, and can never be restored once it is lost.” And, of course, she knew.
In due course they retired, and Dori spent the night with Fox. Now they understood that she had nothing to lose, but held him at bay because she did not care to commit even briefly to him. Squid knew, because she tuned in; the two never touched each other, literally.
Laurelai reverted to age twelve and changed back to Larry. “I’m glad I met Dori in my female state,” he said. “She would have tongue-tied me as a male, even as young as I am.”
“She would,” Squid agreed.
“Tomorrow, she will help Fox follow the trail to Caprice Castle. Then, we’ll be up against the finale.”
“And I will have to kill Win!” Squid exclaimed. “I hate that. I don’t believe it, I don’t accept it, I can’t abide it, but that vision seemed dreadfully true.”
“Or the universe will end,” he agreed. “I can’t make sense of it, but fear it.”
“I’m nobody. How can I be called the most important person? Ludicrous!”
“If the fate of the universe really does depend on you, you are that important.”
“That’s utter nonsense.”
“It is nonsense,” he agreed. “There must be some explanation that makes sense of it. We must be misinterpreting the signals.”
“We must be,” she agreed, clinging to that hope. Then she dissolved into tears, and he held her as long as it took.
Next morning, Santo was ready. Noe explained the procedure: “Fox will locate the scent of Caprice Castle, and lead us to a window, which is a kind of portal to another world. He does not make the world or the window, he merely sniffs them out and uses them to follow a scent. Dori can see smells, so can spot them from farther away than he can. They will work together. Fibot will follow. The trail may be devious, as it follows other rules than the ones we know, but it will inevitably lead to our destination, Caprice. We really won’t have much to do until we get there. Then Piton and Data will move the castle back to Xanth, as it can travel there on its own power. It is all very simple, we hope. Any questions?”
“Yes,” Squid said. “I have had bad dreams of my role in this. As far as I know, I shouldn’t have a role; it’s all Fox and Dori, then Piton and Data. So how do I figure in?”
“I said, we hope it is all very simple,” Noe said. “Not that I believe it will be. I think of the trail as like the string of a necklace. The episodes along it are like the beads. A necklace needs both string and beads. Fox will trace the string. You must be a bead. Only with your participation will the necklace be complete.”
That did make sense. But what a bead! She would have to kill her friend and sibling? Or else? But what could she do except follow the course and try to change it when she got there. “Thank you,” she said sadly.
“Squid,” Santo said. “I wish this dreadful burden were not yours. But when Demons play, mortals are largely pow
erless. I know you will do the right thing when the time comes.”
“What if the right thing is to kill Win?” Squid cried. “How could I ever do that?”
“I know you would never choose it,” Win said. “We siblings would never harm each other. But if it takes my death to save the universe, then I am ready.”
“Oh, Win!” Squid hugged her and burst into tears. In a moment the other siblings joined her in tears, and some of the others.
But what could they do? They all were victims of the awful game.
And maybe her vision was wrong. It had occurred when she was ill, and might be a delusion. That was about all Squid had left to cling to.
Before long things settled down. “We are all ready,” Noe said grimly. “Except for one detail. Fox, Dori, Benny, you are adults. We believe that the rules of this Demon game mean that children are exempt from capture. Only if there is an adult aboard Fibot when we reach Caprice Castle can they spy and capture us. You will lead us to it, but you will have to debark before we enter the castle. You can then track us to Xanth, and we will pick you up and welcome you. We do not mean to strand you alone, only to play the game the way we have to. Do you understand?”
“Understood,” Fox agreed.
“When this is done, I hope to be your friend also,” Dori said.
“I would like that,” Noe said. “Now it is your turn, Fox.”
“My turn,” Fox agreed. “Let me see the thimble again.”
Data produced it. Fox took it and sniffed it, then handed it to Dori.
“Green,” she said, and gave it back to Data.
“Thank you,” Fox said.
Squid remained silent, as did the others. This was a curious way to start a major quest. Did either of these visitors really know what they were doing?
It was Dori who started the action. Fibot remained in the courtyard of Caprine Castle, invisible. The doe went to the deck and looked around. “I see a very faint smell of that thimble, that way,” she said, pointing upward.
Squid and Laurelai were beside her. They saw nothing, of course.
Win generated her wind. Firenze activated the fire sail, which was now in the shape of a question mark. Fibot was cautious too. The boat slid smoothly up at that angle.
There were several Animalia at the edges of the court, including Hero and Mona, quietly watching. When the boat became visible and took off, they waved.
“I like those folk,” Larry said. “I hope we do see them again.”
“Me, too,” Myst murmured, and Firenze nodded. It was a hopeful but slightly sad parting.
“That way,” Dori said, pointing again.
The wind changed. The boat altered direction. They sailed out over the forest. How could a smell from another planet be there, whatever its color? But Squid kept her mouth shut.
Soon they came to a rocky field. “I see several wisps of smell there,” Dori said. Squid saw nothing, and knew the others were similarly blank.
Fox stepped in. “Now I see a green smell radiating out from a center. That must be a window.”
“It must be,” Dori agreed.
“Land me there,” Fox said to Win. “I will verify it.”
Win guided the craft to the ground. Fox jumped down and walked to an undistinguished spot. “I need a ladder,” he said. “It’s too high.”
Hilda floated a small stepladder on Ion’s little carpet, as Ion no longer needed it. She set it up where Fox indicated. The others stood in a circle around it and watched.
Fox climbed it, reached the top, and disappeared. First his reaching arms, then his head, then the rest of his body, climbing into nothingness. It was weird.
The others stared.
In half a moment Fox’s feet reappeared from above, found the ladder, and the rest of him joined them. He descended to the ground. “It’s a window,” he reported. “But there’s a complication. It opens on a city on, I think planet Earth. There are people on the street. We will be noticed.”
That had never occurred to Squid. She had somehow supposed that their journey would be private.
“I can wear the veil,” Dori said. “But I will still be visible, and seeming to appear from nowhere. That will be hard to explain.”
“Worse,” Fox said. “Most are men, perhaps heading for a sporting event. They look like crude types.”
Dori nodded. “Aren’t they all!” She pondered briefly, no more than two thirds of a moment. “Maybe I should remove the veil. I am not dependent on magic to make a man pause.”
“A dozen men may gather. Men become bolder in groups. They don’t speak a language I recognize. You could be in trouble.”
“I could be,” Dori agreed. “Maybe Hilda could sew me a cloak of invisibility.”
“I could,” Hilda said. “But I am not completely expert in those. It would block your sight out, as well as theirs in.”
“Unless I exposed only my eyes.”
“Then they would seem to be floating eyes, like a ghost.”
“Maybe I can help,” Larry said. “As Laurelai. To distract them from you, while you look for the green smell.”
“Then you could become a target,” Dori said.
“Then maybe I can help,” Squid said. “I have a sense of meaning from folk I meet, so could read their thoughts and maybe counter them.”
“Or Dori could use a portal to change to male form, to be less distracting,” Larry suggested.
“Forget it,” Dori said. “I have tried male. I’m no good at it. All my reflexes are female. I’d mess it up royally. Nobody respects a man who flashes panties or leans forward to show his upper chest.”
“This is already getting complicated,” Noe said. “Maybe we need another window, one that is more isolated.”
“They exist,” Fox said. “But can be far apart. We might lose the trail. Better to find a way to follow this one.”
“Then let’s be a distraction,” Squid said. “If we get in trouble, Fibot can pick us back up.”
“There is another risk,” Fox said. “Windows tend to be temporary. This one might last a year, or one minute. Best not to delay.”
“Then let’s get moving,” Squid said. “Larry, let’s change ages too.”
He nodded. They retreated to Fibot and to their cabin, where Larry efficiently stripped and changed gender with the mini portal, then held her while they both aged about five years. Then they did their hair and put on female dresses, Squid too, though she didn’t really need to. They returned to the courtyard as two teen girls.
“We’ll need the ladder there,” Fox said. “It’s about the same distance above the pavement.”
“We’ll fetch it after us,” Dori said.
The group boarded the boat, except for Fox. He went up on the ladder, disappeared, drew the ladder up so that it also disappeared, then dangled a ribbon behind for Fibot to orient on. The boat was invisible too. It could navigate any aperture of any size: that was part of its magic. From aboard it, it simply seemed that the world outside briefly distorted.
Win blew the craft through the spot indicated by the ribbon.
Suddenly it was a dramatically different world outside. It was a city street, such as existed in the dreary world of Mundania. Tall buildings rose on either side, odd vehicles cruised on the pavement, and the edges were thronged with people.
There was no sign of Fox. Then the ladder appeared and dropped down to the concrete, and Fox appeared, climbing down it. “There must be a bit of a tunnel between realities,” Noe said. “He perched there until we passed.”
“Our turn,” Dori said. She climbed over the gunwale to the ladder and descended.
Laurelai followed. Then Squid. Soon all four were standing on the street.
And were suddenly the center of attention. “Pretend to ignore them,” Dori said. “I see a whiff of green smell a
head. This way.” She started walking.
“Kool ta taht!” a man explained. “Tahw a kcar no taht ebab!”
Their language was utterly foreign, but Squid was able to pick up the essence from the man’s one-track mind. “He’s admiring Dori’s form,” she said. “Though he seems to think she’s a baby.”
“Some baby!” Laurelai said.
“Now the distraction,” Dori said. “You follow the green, Fox. We’ll rejoin you when you verify the next window.”
“Got it,” Fox agreed, walking in the direction she had indicated.
Dori angled away from him, and Laurelai and Squid went with her. A contingent of men followed them, not interested in Fox. The distraction was working!
“Eerht sebab!” another man said. “Ylsuoiciled gnuoy, oot!”
“They like us young, oddly,” Squid said.
“Oh, men do,” Dori agreed. “That’s why the Adult Conspiracy exists. If it was up to the men, girls of any age would be signaling the stork for babies.”
“That must be it,” Laurelai said. “They don’t think we’re babies. They just want to get us to signal for them, because they can’t do it by themselves.”
“If we only knew how,” Squid said.
A man confronted them, blocking their way. “Yeh, llod, woh tuoba a ssik?” he said to Dori.
“This one thinks you’re a doll,” Squid said. “He wants a kiss.”
“He wants more than that,” Dori said. Then, to the man: “Get lost, donkey gap!”
“Oho!” he said, needing no translation. He grabbed for her.
Dori leaned forward and drew open her upper decolletage, providing him a deep peek inside her bra. “I hope this magic works here,” she said.
The man froze in place, freaked out.
“Well, now,” Laurelai said as a man reached for her. She spun about in place and hoisted her hem to flash her panties.
He, too, freaked out. So did several others.
One grabbed for Squid. She could form her body as she chose, to a degree, and had exaggerated the configuration of her chest. He too freaked out. She was pleased; that was her first freak out.
Skeleton Key Page 29
